12 April 2014

From History of Sangamon County, Illinois: Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Townships ... Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens. (Chicago: Inter-state publishing Company, 1881). --

Before he was President of the United States, before he was a U.S. congressman, before he was an Illinois congressman, Abraham Lincoln was the captain of the Illinois militia in the Blackhawk War of 1832. My 3xg-grandfather Samuel Dutton served under him.

I am still researching Samuel Dutton (1806-1835), finding very little about him. He died at only 29 years of age, in rural Illinois before civil records were kept. But he was a contemporary of Abraham Lincoln's, from not only the same county but also the same area of the county.

Samuel's young widow Nancy Dutton (nee. Smith, 1808-1868), survived on by marrying Samuel's younger brother Norman Dutton (1810-1889) who like all the Duttons was a strong abolitionist and worked the Underground Railroad. Hmmm.....